Background:
Self-medication is considered common among prospective health care professionals. Attitudes towards
conventional and complementary medicine may affect their future pharmaco­therapy practice. The aim of
this research was to determine attitudes and prevalence of self-medication among population of first and
final year medicine and pharmacy students.

Methods:
Research was performed as a cross-sectional study at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Novi Sad, and
included 192 first and last year students of medicine and pharmacy. Students filled out a demographic and
self-medication questionnaire created for the purpose of this research.

Results:
Self-medication was reported by 81.3&hairsp;% students. The most frequently self-prescribed
medications were conventional drugs. Independent risk factors for self-medication identified in the logistic
regression analysis were last year of studies (OR 7.29, 95&hairsp;%-C.I.:
2.28&hairsp;–&hairsp;22.90), living alone (OR 3.46, 95&hairsp;%-C.I.:
1.44&hairsp;–&hairsp;8.34) and consumption of cigarettes (OR 8.55, 95&hairsp;%-C.I.:
1.05&hairsp;–&hairsp;69.38). Last year students had more confidence in conventional medicine compared
to herbal drugs, and had better knowledge about safety and risks of co-administration of herbal and
conventional drugs.

Discussion:
Results are in accordance with the study concucted at the University in Ljubljana, as well as studies in
other countries, where students of the final year were more inclined towards self-medication, probably due
to better knowledge acquired through studies and higher degree of confidence. However, this practice is not
risk-free. Self-medication may result in irrational drug use, delayed seeking of medical advice, and
increased side effects. Self-medication is an important issue among the population of medical students,
especially among final year students. No difference in attitudes and behavior was found in relation to
study program.

Acknowledgements:
This work was supported by the Ministry of Science and Technological Development, Republic of Serbia
(project no. 41012) and by the Provincial Secretariat for Science and Technological Development,
Autonomous Province of Vojvodina (project no. 114-451-2517/2017).